Thầy talks about the essence of the Sangha and it’s importance in bringing about social change. He shares the story of his meeting Martin Luther King Jr. and of how his idea to build the beloved community is the same as Sangha building with a non-Buddhist name. Thầy asks: “What is the Sangha and why do we need one?”

Thầy teaches that even President Obama needs a Sangha to support him in a very compassionate and loving way. We have produced our politicians. Our politicians need a strong Sangha, even though it is not a Buddhist one. And we have a role in that Sangha too. Obama is not an individual, he is a part of the Sangha. Without the Sangha, we cannot go far. The twenty-one-day retreat is a time to strengthen our Sangha and open the way for the world. The Sangha includes the Buddha and the Dharma. It contains the path of understanding and love.

Thầy sees the twenty-first century as like a hill that we are climbing together as a Sangha. Can we climb beautifully? Each step should be love, healing, forgiveness. With a Sangha, this becomes easy.

Thầy invites us to ask ourselves what it is that are we looking for. Is it our joy, our success, our transformation, our happiness, our emancipation or our freedom? Whatever we are looking for, we have to look for it in the present moment. How do we go home to the present moment to discover the power to nourish and to heal?

Thầy reminds us that the Five Mindfulness Trainings, the ten precepts of a novice, the two hundred fifty precepts for monastics, the fourteen precepts for members of the Order of Interbeing all represent the Buddhist teaching as far as ethics and morality is concerned, the Path of the Buddha that is being explored during the retreat and Thầy invites all Sangha members to contribute their insight to the revision of both the Five Mindfulness Trainings and the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings.

This is the first talk of a series of thirteen giving during The Path of the Buddha, twenty-one-day retreat in the year 2009. Thầy offered this talk at the New Hamlet, Plum Village, France.